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The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-8AS, registration ET-ANB, s/n 29935.[1][6] It had its maiden flight on 18 January 2002, and was delivered new to Ryanair on 4 February 2002 as EI-CSW.[7] Stored in April 2009 (2009-04), Ethiopian Airlines took delivery of the aircraft on 12 September 2009, leased from CIT Aerospace.[3][7] Provided with twin CFM56-7B26 powerplants, the airframe last underwent maintenance checks on 25 December 2009 without any technical problems found.[3][7][8] It was 8 years and 7 days old at the time the accident took place.

The Boeing 737 took off from runway 21 at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in stormy weather,[4] with 82 passengers and eight crew members on board.[9] The METAR data indicated wind speeds of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9 mph) from varying directions, with thunderstorms in the vicinity of the airport. The aircraft climbed to 9,000 feet (2,700 m),[2][10] turned sharply to the left, stalled, and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea at about 02:00 local time. Radar contact was lost about four to five minutes into the flight,[11] while witnesses near the coast reported seeing the aircraft on fire as it crashed into the sea.[12][13] The flight had been scheduled to arrive at Addis Ababa at 07:50 local time (04:50 UTC).[13]

On the morning following the crash, Lebanese authorities reported locating the crash site 3.5 kilometres (1.9 nmi) off the coast from the village of Na'ameh, in 45 metres (148 ft) of water.[14][15][6] The search for survivors was carried out by the Lebanese Army,[16] using Sikorsky S-61 helicopters, the Lebanese Navy and UNIFIL troops.[11] The U.S. military, in response to a request from the Lebanese government, sent the guided missile destroyer USS Ramage, a Navy P-3 aircraft,[17] and the salvage ship USNS Grapple.[18] The French Navy sent a Breguet Atlantic reconnaissance aircraft.[19] UNIFIL sent three ships (among them the German minesweeper tender Mosel and the Turkish B class corvetteBozcaada)[19] and two helicopters to the scene. Further helicopters were sent by the Royal Air Force,[4] and the Cyprus Police aviation unit.[20]

All the deceased were recovered from the sea by 23 February. The recovered bodies were sent to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut for DNA testing and identification. They were all identified by the end of February.[6][24]

Lebanese PresidentMichel Suleiman stated before the flight data recorders were found that the crash was not due to terrorism.[27] Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri rejected the notion that the aircraft should not have been allowed to take off under the current weather conditions, stating that "many" other aircraft had taken off during the time period.[28]

The final investigation report released by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Works and Transport, presented on 17 January 2012, stated that "the probable causes of the accident were the flight crew's mismanagement of the aircraft's speed, altitude, headings and attitude through inconsistent flight control inputs resulting in a loss of control and their failure to abide by CRM [Crew Resource Management] principles of mutual support and calling deviations".[29]

Ethiopian Airlines stated the airline "strongly refutes" the report, and that it "was biased, lacking evidence, incomplete and did not present the full account of the accident". The airline wrote in a press release issued the same day as the investigation report that the halting of flight data and cockpit voice recording at 1,300 feet, the disappearance of the aircraft from radar at that time, and the eyewitness reports of a fireball "clearly indicate that the aircraft disintegrated in the air due to explosion, which could have been caused by a shoot-down, sabotage, or lightning strike."[30][31][32][33] The Lebanese CAA report had noted that eyewitnesses, including an air traffic controller and a crew flying in the vicinity of Flight 409, had reported seeing an "orange light", "an orange explosion", or "a ball of fire" at the time and toward the location the aircraft crashed into the sea; but concluded "No sign of any explosion or fire were detected on the wreckage" or "during the autopsies carried on some of the bodies".[29] It speculated that the impression of an explosion may have been caused by the aircraft lights during the aircraft's last steep dive; or by the "thunderstorm activities in the area".[29]

The crash was dramatized in the twelfth series of the Canadian documentary Mayday (also known as Air Emergency or Air Crash Investigation). It is titled "Heading to Disaster". The episode re-creates the crash based on the Lebanese investigators' final report.[39]